A jaded newspaper columnist is jolted back to reality when a reader who had called him for help turns up dead two days later, and during his efforts to find out why, he begins to feel that he has been given a second chance at life. 15,000 first printing."
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Tad Beckman makes his living "arranging the words this way and that" as a columnist for the Barrington (Georgia) Chronicle. Tad had started out with an almost religious eagerness to testify on the human condition. Lately, however, he's become jaded at the predictability of human nature. So when a woman calls from the trailer park with a tale of victimization?her abusive ex-husband is threatening and the police won't protect her?Tad impatiently yells at her to pack up the kids and leave town. Whether or not she understands him, she is dead within days, murdered by her ex, who then chops off her head in front of their children. This hideous event sets in motion a compelling tale of revenge, intrigue, and redemption as we follow Tad in his quest for a second chance. Gearino (What the Deaf Mute Heard, S. & S., 1996) has a cynical humor and an eye for the authentic as he teases the reader along with bits of the puzzle and hints of more to come. If, ultimately, the pieces fit a little too neatly, the game is still an enjoyable pastime. Recommended.?Kay Hogan, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Newspaper columnist Tad Beckman has grown weary of listening to the pathetic complaints of the oppressed. So when a desperate woman contacts him about her abusive husband, he can't work up much sympathy, labeling the incident "an ordinary white-trash drama." A week later, the woman's husband decapitates her in front of their three small children; Beckman writes a self-flagellating column that nets him a Pulitzer and then promptly quits the newspaper. After a year of aimlessness, he takes up his trade with renewed vigor only to be duped by a lover into writing a libelous column. His quest to find out why his lover set him up brings him face to face with some unpleasant truths about his own family. Gearino's (What the Deaf-Mute Heard, 1996) tightly written morality tale suffers from a contrived plot that wraps things up way too neatly, yet his intimate knowledge of the newsroom and his assured prose style will hook readers right from the outset. Joanne Wilkinson
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best I read in 2002.,
By
This review is from: Counting Coup: A Novel (Hardcover)
G. D. Gearino, Counting Coup (Simon and Schuster, 1997)I'm sure most of the people who read Counting Coup will see the last ten pages coming from a mile out; I was completely blindsided by them, and that's probably coloring my judgment of this little gem. It was raised from a competent, wicked novel about a southern mystery into the realm of the truly great whodunits. In fact, the montage of revelations in those last ten pages feels a whole lot like the montage of revelations Chazz Palminteri goes through in the last few minutes of The Usual Suspects. Yeah, it's that good. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tad Beckman's first editor once told him that journalists get cocky, and then they take a big fall. In the opening pages of this novel, that's exactly what happens to Beckman, the kind of op-ed guy everyone wants to tell their problems to; he's having a bad day, a woman tries to tell him her problems, he's brusque with her, and she ends up very nastily dead. He then disappears for a year, and upon his return to civilization, a cause, and a reason to start writing op-ed pages again, almost literally falls into his lap. It's too much to pass up, and Beckman starts digging into the details of the life of the man whose wife he's now acquainted with, the man who wants to buy his historic-landmark apartment building and tear it down, an all-around nasty guy if ever there was one. He just can't get over the idea that something is just a little bit off... I realized how much was going to like this book when I hit the halfway point, was still involved in the setup (that year-long disappearance, and his getting involved in the mystery at hand, takes quite a while), and realized I didn't care. In the hands of a less talented author, that much setup for fifty or so pages of actual mystery can be a slow-moving disaster; Gearino uses it to weave in not only clues as to what's happening, but events from Beckman's childhood to make us understand why he's so eager to take on a new cause celebre as soon as he gets back to civilization. Gearino makes us understand his charge; that, more than anything, is what propels this book into the stratosphere. Well, that and the last ten pages. **** ½
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gearino is a wonderful story teller!,
This review is from: Counting Coup: A Novel (Hardcover)
Counting Coup is a masterful story about regret and redemption. Gearino has a very strong sense of dialogue and his portayal of life in the South is the most accurate I've ever read. Counting Coup is a completely rewarding read, as are Gearino's other two novels (to date). Buy it, buy it, buy it!
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great descriptions and characters, but what was the point?,
By A Customer
This review is from: Counting Coup: A Novel (Hardcover)
Because of the wonderful descriptions of small-town southern living and the excellent development of the characters in that small town, I felt an obligation to finish this book even when it lagged. Never was quite sure what the author's point was--reporters aren't God? always run from your obligations unless trapped, then lie?
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